Reversal of fishing ban proposed
NEW ROADS — After a 21-year ban, commercial fisherman may be allowed to fish on False River as part of the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ efforts to improve the oxbow lake’s water quality in small, incremental steps, authorities said.
Mike Wood, the agency’s director of inland fisheries, said the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission proposed reversing the ban earlier this month to allow fisherman to remove undesirable fish such as carp, gar and buffalo fish from the lake.
Proliferating “rough” fish, he said, have led to a decrease in the lake’s native vegetation and created murky water conditions as the fish agitate the lake bed.
The decreased water quality is a threat to more desirable fish, including largemouth bass, sunfish and crappie, which nest on the lake’s bottom and whose eggs need sunlight to properly develop, Wood said.
Opening up state lakes to commercial fisherman has worked well in Lake Bruin in Tensas Parish and in Lake Providence in East Carroll Parish, he said.
“The problem is that if you leave rough fish unchecked without predation, things get out of balance, so harvesting them is a good thing,” Wood said. “It has a positive effect on the environment.”
The commission is accepting public comments through April 5, after which it will vote on whether to reverse the ban, Wood said.
The proposed commercial fishing season would run from Nov. 1 through the last day of February on a yearly basis.
Wood said commercial fisherman would be allowed to fish on False River at no cost.
“We’ll encourage them to catch what they can. It won’t deplete the resource,” he said. “We would want them to notify us that they’re there and tell us what they’ve caught.”
State Rep. Major Thibaut, D-New Roads, said the proposed commercial fishing season is a small and inexpensive way for the state to be more proactive in dealing with False River’s declining water quality.
Wildlife and Fisheries previously planned to lower the lake’s water levels by as much as 6 feet, which would have allowed sunlight to reach the lake bottom and helped to decompose the buildup of muck that has accumulated since the late 1980s when a series of drainage canals flowing into False River were built.
State Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham canceled the drawdown in 2010, calling it a “temporary fix.” He opted instead to wait for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to finish a decade-long study of how to improve False River’s declining water quality.
Barham has said he would proceed with the drawdown if that plan was recommended by the corps.
Corps officials have maintained that a drawdown would likely improve False River’s water quality, but the agency backed off that option in July.
Federal engineers said the estimated $2.6 million it would take to study a drawdown’s effect on homes and structures along the shoreline would exceed the Corps’ $5 million cap on the project.
With the drawdown option off the table, state Rep. Major Thibaut, D-New Roads, said he and other legislators have asked Wildlife and Fisheries, the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources and other stakeholders to come up with inexpensive methods to improve the lake’s water quality while the Corps studies more long-term solutions.
Establishing a commercial fishing season is one of those methods, Thibaut said.
“We want to be more proactive in helping restore False River to what it once was,” Thibaut said. “You never know what will happen with the Corps. It’s been 10 years; We’re tired of waiting on them.”
Thibaut said various agencies should have a draft of other steps the state can take to improve False River’s water quality in the coming weeks.
“We’re looking at small steps that range in size and cost that we can take up every year,” he said.
Send an email to Wood at mwood@wlf.la.gov or write to him at P.O. Box 98000, Baton Rouge, LA 70898-9000 to comment on the proposed False River commercial fishing season.